At the least, some serious touch ups are needed. Dragging it through the brush the last several years has taken its toll… Not to mention it turned 49 years old this summer, I’m sure some of these scratches were there before it was mine.
But I do see a lot more after every season, some distinctively new this last week..
Especially on the underside. –Which makes sense; when the gun is shoulder slung, that part of the barrel meets the brush I push through as it goes over/around me.
And Yes, those are rust spots in the first pic, and on the muzzle… Found out the hard way that my Kolpin gun boot IV is NOT waterproof if left upside down..
The butt end cover fits Over the main part of the case, but without a seal. So left upside down in the rain on the boat for 5 days, water runs into the cap… And then into the rest of the case when you pick it up.
Dumped probably a quart of water out of it… Foam liner was basically soaked. Found this when loading the boat to come home –no time to dry it.
–In defense of the case, it is designed to be solid mounted in a vehicle, butt up, barrel down, cap up, “right side up”, so water couldn’t enter in this manner. Ive been using it as a hard carry case off of a mount, Not what it was designed for.
About the only way you’d get water in it when mounted upright is full submersion… which its not designed for either.. Definitely operator error leaving it upside down in the rain a few days, Not a fault of the case or its design.
No other easy way to carry the rifle home though, to keep it out of the way anyway, and out of the rain. Had to put it in the wet case. 15 hours later when I got home, the rifle was pretty wet.. Wiped it down then, but it still managed to rust a few spots before I got it cleaned(couple days later).
Gave it a thorough WD-40 bath… Really slathered it on, whole action out of the stock, and the bore. Wiped down again.
Then did a simple bore cleaning, solvent, brush, patches.. There is some somewhat heavy copper fouling in the bore, that wouldn’t budge… Didnt want to scrub it THAT hard now, but if any of it was rust, I did brush it hard enough, I’m sure it would have come out. Then oiled the snot out of it inside and out…
Did the 357 while I was at it… been meaning to clean and oil that gun for months, its spent a lot of time out in the weather this year, and it’s missing a lot more of its blueing. Actually amazes me that that gun never shows any rust inside or out..
Hate to admit it, but this is the cleanest they’ve both been for a couple years…
Honestly, I don’t clean guns often, if they shoot and function good, and ain’t rusting, all I do is oil from time to time.
Do Need to get in a better habit though of post trip cleaning! At least for surface moisture/external dirt and grime if not full on scrubbing..
Alaskan, Adventurer, Engineer. 